“Poor players are ‘disconnected’–they use their arms and hands independent of the body. In other words, the tail wags the dog.”

One golfer particularly found a great connection in Ben Hogan’s “Five Fundamentals of Golf.”

“Hogan used an analogy of the two-handed basketball pass to communicate what I call connection. But few paid any attention, because he didn’t elaborate on it. In my view this is golf’s master fundamental. By tossing a medicine ball (fitness illustration), you can directly experience this connection and the Seven Common Denominators of which I speak.”

Assume a normal address position holding a medicine ball (a full ball shag bag can be a substitute), and prepare to throw it to a target about 15 feet away.

Because of the ball’s weight, you’ll spread your feet to shoulder width and brace your legs. You’ll feel the connection between the large muscles of the shoulders and the arms, with the upper arms adhering to the chest. Notice the triangle formed by the arms and shoulders, and note, too, that the ball is in the center of your chest.

Now take the medicine ball back with this triangle making certain that you don’t move the ball with just your arms and hands. The ball must remain in the same position relative to the center of your torso.

At the top, the right arm must fold, and you’re coiled against a braced right leg. Change direction with the right side in sequence–the right foot, knee, hip and lat muscles.

At impact, the triangle returns to its original position.

Halfway through the finish, you retain the triangle, with the body facing the target; the left arm folds.

Finish erect and balanced on the left foot.

Now try to throw the ball with just your hands and arms, keeping the shoulders and legs out of the action. You’ll quickly convince yourself that a “connected” swing is a more powerful, accurate one

We first highly recommend getting golf swing lessons from a local golf club pro shop. Find someone there who is on staff and works full time as the course “pro”. These individuals have certifications and skills that take years to develop correctly. Not only that, but they are skilled at teaching others which will help you visualize and coordinate the body movements that you will need to master to be successful.

Secondly, you must practice. Top professionals who have the best golf swings like Tiger Woods train their golf swing techniques up to 8-12 hours everyday, hitting literally thousands and thousands of golf balls. Nothing will beat hard work and persistance on the driving range. No tournament, golf outing, or weekend 18 hole excursion. Your mom told you to do it and we agree. Practice, practice, and then practice some more. Aim for consistentcy and not power at this stage. Just hit the ball the same way every time. Once you get this down, you’ll be able to add swing speed and power.

Finally, when you are feeling confident and have some time under your belt, head back to your golf pro for some medium level lessons. Have them fine tune you swing, critiquing your downstroke, hip turn, and follow through. These are finer points of your swing that are important, but not something you need to focus on when first learning. These advanced lessons will help you “put things together” and keep you focused on your golf swing.

Depending on the situation, you may want to have a friend watch your golf swing practice sessions.  If you cannot find someone to come along with you, it may also be of some help to set up a video recorder.  As you practice your golf swing, you should be trying to improve your co-ordination, as well as make sure that every muscle in your body is focused on driving the ball forward, and in a straight direction.

As may be expected, if you make use of a video camera, you can go back and analyze your golf swing practice session.  Without a question, you should watch the tape as soon as you are done practicing, and then go back to it a few days later.  Even though you may not see or feel mistakes in your current swing form, you may notice them in the video.  For the  most part, if you keep these tapes and compare them, you should be able to see where you are making improvement, as well as where you need to do more work.
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When you are looking to improve golf swing power, it will not be of much help to watch how the pros do it.  Among other things, their golf swing is designed to work perfectly with their own body. In a sense, you can think of your golf swing being as unique as your walk.  Therefore, you will need to experiment with arm, back, and body positions that will help you put the maximum amount of drive behind the ball.

As you learn more about improving your golf game, you will come across all kinds of advice about form and motions.  Nevertheless, if your body and muscles are not aligned in a specific way, that advice will not work well for you.  Therefore, even if you do read this kind of advice, it never hurts to take some time to pay attention to how your body feels with each swing, as well as figure out which motions will work best for you.

This is especially important to consider if you notice that all golfing advice is written for tall people. If you happen to be short, all of the advice about club angles and posture are bound to be different.  On the other hand, if you think about the basic laws of physics and motion, you should be able to adapt some of this advice in a way that increases your golf swing power.
Photo Credit: Fevi in Cayman

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